Justin Verlander, Magglio Ordonez Lead Tigers to Victory in Series Finale

July 26th, 2006 | Brian

Justin Verlander continues to amaze. Other then a solo homerun to Joe Inglett, Verlander was pretty much flawless through 6 2/3 innings. Todd Jones had an uneventful ninth inning and he picked up his 27th save of the season. He’s now tied for the league lead with 13 wins.

Magglio Ordonez’s two run double turned out to be the difference in the game. The Tigers added a couple more and Craig Monroe finished the game with three hits. Dmitri Young got his first day off since coming back.

The Twins swept the White Sox, so the Tigers picked up another game. The Tigers get the day off before heading for a pretty big three game series with the Twins. They’ll be facing the big guns on the mound (Liriano and Santana) and the Tigers will go a long way towards burying their competition if they can pull off two of three.

So, any comments on possible trade scenarios for the Tigers? Do you think that they will sit tight with what they have since it appears that Dmitri Young is meshing well with the team and performing on the field?

What’s really annoying, Craig, is that too many teams see themselves as buyers, and it’s driving the price for tradable players through the roof. I’d like to see them make a deal because I do not believe Monroe or Dmitri Young are good enough players to do what we need them to do. They’re both hitting right now, so I’m looking dead wrong on this, but I still stand by my position, that they are bad players. Dmitri Young hasn’t been a particularly good player for a few years, and Monroe has NEVER been a good player. Their free swinging ways do more damage than their occasional hot streaks do good.

Now that the staff is starting to falter a little, we need something to lock up the playoffs. Nate Silver from Baseball Prospectus determined that the Tigers have probably the least to gain from a late season addition, since their playoff chances are already very high (95%, by their estimation).

There are certain things these systems don’t take into account, and they mostly have to do with fading performances from old/surprising players. I was convinced that signing Rogers was a waste of money, and while I’m glad to have proven very wrong on that so far, there is no reason to think that his recent slide is a just a bump in the road. Go look at his splits and you’ll see that he has fallen off of a huge cliff after the All-Star break for a few years now. I’m sure this has something to do with his AARP membership.

Robertson has started to stink it up a little, just as he did last year in the second half.

Shelton and Thames have hit the skids a little, though I doubt both will continue to slump forever. Rodney and Zumaya have started walking too many batters. Todd Jones will become Todd Jones again. Everyone else, aside from Maroth, has stayed healthy. Guillen’s knee and Pudge’s back have held up.

The Tigers are simply not as good right now as their record suggests. And they have huge crash and burn potential. Their defense is outstanding, so that’s good, but this is a team that has greatly overachieved so far, and they could fall just as fast. If the Twins skate along playing .700 ball, the Tigers could wind up in serious trouble in another month and a half. I don’t want to have to fight off the Red Sox or the Yankees or the White Sox. I want to get some insurance and drive this thing home. This doesn’t happen every year, and I think we should sieze the opportunity. A playoff appearance is worth a lot of money to a team, so it’s not as though we’re flushing the money down the toilet. The way I see it, any team that goes on and on about how it will overpay free agents to come to town should be willing to overpay when overpaying actually starts to make sense.